Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Promised Land’ On ABC, A Soapy, Multigenerational Drama About A Latin-Owned Winery

In yet another one of those coincidences of parallel thinking in showbiz, we now have not one, but two series about drama surrounding family-owned, successful California wineries. The Kings Of Napa on OWN was about a winery owned by a Black family; this time around, on ABC’s Promised Land, the successful winery is Latin-owned. Thankfully, the differences between the two shows don’t end there.

PROMISED LAND: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A group of undocumented migrants approach a border wall between Mexico and the U.S.

The Gist: As they approach the border, Juana Sanchez (Katya Martín) and her sister Rosa (Ariana Guerra) are trying to learn some English from a Spanish-to-English book Juana took with her for her crossing. They make it over the wall, but Juana drops the book. As they walk on the other side, a young man named Carlos Rincón (Andres Velez) approaches them and gives the book back. Juana seems to like him, even though he’s a bit immature. He says there’s a job waiting for him in Sonoma, at the Heritage House Winery, and he thinks it’ll be a better job than the girls are looking to do, which is pick barley.

At Heritage House,  owner Joe Sandoval (John Ortiz) is getting ready for a big harvest and a 20th anniversary soiree for him and his wife Lettie (Cecilia Suárez). He’s so excited about their zinfandel for the year, he tells his daughter Veronica (Christina Ochoa) to get it bottled and shipped for Memorial Day, which is only in 3 weeks. She wants to start the discussion that he’s been promising her for a long time: Making her CEO of the winery.

Joe’s stepson Mateo (Augusto Aguilera), the winery’s general manager, also needs to be on alert for all the logistics of such an order. But he wants to actually be a vintner, but Joe thinks Mateo is better off on the business side of the winery. Mateo encourages a young new employee, Daniela (Natalia del Riego), get forged papers when he figures out that she’s undocumented, something that Joe does not tolerate amongst his staff.

The Sandovals are gathering for a lunch to celebrate the return of Joe’s son Antonio (Tonatiuh), who moved to New York after Joe turned his back on him when he came out. He’s built a successful spirits business and Joe has since rebuilt the bridge between them, but it’s still tense. Also there are Camila (Mariel Molino), who wants to push the marketing of the vineyard towards 20-somethings with modern label designs, and Junior (Miguel Angel Garcia), who Joe and Lettie had together. Junior is in a parochial high school and has been skipping school.

Also in the picture is Margaret Honeycroft (Bellamy Young); she’s a successful hotelier and is determined to buy Heritage House right from under Joe. Why? Because Joe somehow managed to squeeze out her father’s ownership of the vineyard years ago, leaving him a drunken mess. She warns Joe that she’s been buying up investors’ shares and is coming after him. Oh, and Margaret isn’t just a rival; she’s his ex-wife and mother to Veronica, Antonio and Camila.

Juana and Rosa escape from a border patrol raid with the help of Carlos. They then have to escape the clutches of men that Carlos know in Bakersfield, who intend on taking the girls and using them for sex trafficking purposes. In the process, Rosa gets shot, and Juana leaves with Carlos after dropping Rosa at a hospital. When they get to Heritage House, they find Carlos’ brother Billy (Rolando Chusan), who can get the two of them papers.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Promised Land isn’t that far off in themes from the recent OWN series The Kings Of Napa. Except this show is far superior in pretty much every aspect.

Our Take: With Promised Land, creator Matt Lopez has managed to create a soapy series where just about everyone has secrets, and gives viewers multiple people to root for or against, while also exploring the history of how the country has been running on the efforts of undocumented workers for generations.

Yes, it’s definitely a soapy show. Not one character doesn’t have something happen that leads them to hiding something. Veronica hits someone with her car while working late at night; instead of staying, she leaves. That guy happens to be the worker at the vineyard who provides forged papers for undocumented workers like Daniela. Joe fires Daniela when he finds out that she’s undocumented, leading Mateo to quit and let slip some information he knows about Joe. When Lettie sees Father Ramos (Yul Vazquez), the new priest at Junior’s school, he turns out to have a strong connection to her past. Lettie herself has secrets she’d rather leave in the past.

Why are we being vague? Because most of the information are major spoilers that ABC would rather we not reveal. Some of them are predictable, others come out of nowhere. But what Lopez has done is weave most of these stories together into a narrative that doesn’t feel outlandishly ridiculous and can serve as fodder for seasons to come.

The dialogue is mostly smart, and the scenery is spectacular. But one of the other reasons why the show works is that no one is purely good or purely bad. At first blush, Joe seems to be the “hero” of the story, with Young being the vixen-ish “bad guy” who wants to ruin him for revenge. But as the first two episodes go on, we noticed that a) not only are people in both of their worlds playing both sides, but b) Joe’s hands aren’t exactly clean when it comes to how he’s conducted himself and his business. If there’s any actor that can convey the complexity of such a “big bad,” it’s Young.

We were just happy to see that Joe isn’t completely angelic and Margaret isn’t completely evil, and they have their reasons for their particular obsessions.  And we’re also happy that the story of Billy, Juana and Carlos will continue as part of the show’s multigenerational bent, because what’s developing among the three of them speaks to the struggle undocumented workers have had to stay one step ahead of deportation while trying to make things better for themselves and their families.

Subtleties like that will help keep the show grounded and not becoming a parody of itself. It was that kind of nuance that was completely missing from The Kings Of Napa, and it’s something that’s refreshing to see in what could have been another dumb primetime network soap opera.

Sex and Skin: Any sex is shown in network-friendly ways, like when we just see a completely-clothed Camila’s face as she receives oral sex.

Parting Shot: Lettie goes to confessional in order to confront Father Ramos about their past.

Sleeper Star: Cecilia Suárez has a strong presence as Lettie, which we see more evidence of as the first episode goes on, and definitely in the second episode. She has her own secrets to keep, and there are definitely threats to that secrecy that she has to manage. Lettie is also not afraid to go toe to toe with Joe.

Most Pilot-y Line: Even though the hit-and-run plot Veronica is involved with connects directly to Mateo, Joe and Lettie, it’s still one of the more threadbare plots among Joe’s kids. It positions Veronica as a good person who just made a mistake, but in reality a “good person” would have stayed. In fact, there was absolutely no reason for her to run other than to make a plotline for herself.

Our Call: STREAM IT. We have to give credit to Matt Lopez for making Promised Land an enjoyable, soapy show that doesn’t insult the intelligence of its viewers. Its messaging is tightly weaved into its multigenerational plot, and the direction and acting are refreshingly nuanced.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.

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